One of the most important keys to letting hope win is realizing that hope is not something you get from your circumstances it is something grow through faith and perseverance. In Hebrews 6:11-12 we read, “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Hope grows in us as we push through hard times with faith and patience. Hope is like a muscle that grows as we stubbornly trust and push forward in believing God even when it doesn’t look like there is much to hope in. He says this is how we come to the “full assurance of hope.” Someone who in spite of how things look on the outside is absolutely sure God is going to win the day eventually.
I love how Paul says it in Romans 5:3-15 in the Message translation: There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary-we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!”
Troubles force us to decide if we trust God. When we choose to trust, God doesn’t disappoint. He comes through. We discover He is faithful. We see hopes and dreams fulfilled and this causes us to trust more the next time in His faithfulness, which creates greater hope. Since hope in God doesn’t disappoint we continue to live more and more hopeful lives.
In 1974 I asked Sharon to marry me. That same week I had the opportunity to go to Bible School in California. So I left El Paso for Anaheim. It was a great school but it was so hard to be away from home and especially away from Sharon. There was no email and I could only afford one long distance call a week. Immediately it was a season of testing us to see how deep our love was and how much we could trust each other. It was hard but the result was that we both discovered our love was real, we could trust each other, and it made us hope even more that our life would be fantastic together. The separation actually increased our capacity to love and anticipate a greater future. In the end hope won, we married, and we discovered through God a future greater than we dreamed. This was the basis of great hope for other things in life like ministry, children, and a dream to reach the world together. Because our trust has kept being tested and God has proven faithful we trust and hope more than ever before.
Don’t be discouraged when life gets hard. Let God use the trouble to grow your hope bigger!
Dale
To watch a video on the subject, please go to: https://www.facebook.com/143479478999897/posts/3516381328376345/
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